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Organ Geek
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22 May 2022, 11:13 pm

People on YouTube and Quora (those are the social media I use most frequently) hurt my feelings just as easily as people I know IRL.
I hate being called "obsessive". My so-called "obsessions" are very important to me. They're my security blankets, and I need them. I desperately wish people (both online and IRL) would accept that instead of judging me. Believe it or not, being called obsessive hurts me even more than being cussed out hurts, although they both hurt.

I am not sure if I have Asperger's or not, I've been diagnosed with a lot of different things. But if I do have Asperger's, I love it because I love my narrow interests very much.



ThisTimelessMoment
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23 May 2022, 1:40 am

People can be miserable!
I try to take such labels as badges of honour or compliments. It no longer matters much to me what others think. What I think is what matters to me. I love my obsessions! Life would be totally not worth living without them.

I tend to think that someone judging, says more about them than it does about me. And I try to keep that in mind when I find myself judging others.


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ToughDiamond
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23 May 2022, 5:00 am

I think you're entitled to be as obsessional as you like, but you might find you're on your own with whatever it is you're pursuing, because the chances of what you're interested in being very interesting to anybody else are probably quite small. But if so, it's a shame they have to insult you just for trying to share it, especially if it's written stuff online where they can just scroll past it without feeling they're being rude. A bit of courtesy costs nothing.

I'm pretty obsessional myself, and I get a lot of fun out of it, but I rarely share it with other people these days. I've noticed they get bored and frustrated with it, and I've felt the same when other people have tried to talk to me about what they're interested in, if they don't give me the chance to redirect the conversation onto something else. I used to assume that if something fascinated me then it was a fascinating thing, therefore other people would also be fascinated with it, but I began to realise that people generally are pretty much only into their own individual interests, though there are exceptions.



jimmy m
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23 May 2022, 8:34 pm

Focusing on one skill or another is not a bad thing. I have done it all my life. I become very skilled at what I am obsessed about. And over time I find other things to focus on. And as the years go by I have expanded to so many skills that I know many things with a sense of fine detail. So it is not a bad thing to have special interest. It is what makes you YOU. Someone quite unique.


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timf
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25 May 2022, 5:41 am

There might be a difference between being focused and obsessional. The difference might be the degree of control one has. A friend going through medical school once commented about his rotation in surgery that all of the stereotypes one has heard about surgeons was true (focused to the point of rudeness). However, who would want a surgeon who was not focused.